Chapter One: Getting Started Welcome to the world of Ivalice! Where a fantastick and magickal adventure awaits those foolhardy and brave enough to seek it out! What awaits you as you venture into this marvelous world? Who will you be? Perhaps a hardy Bangaa warrior, who cuts down swaths of enemies with his giant sword? Mayhap you will be a Viera hunter, whose arrow flies true and far? Or possibly a Hume mage, with access to powerful and ancient Magicks that makes your foes quiver in fear. Where will you go? Will you scour the land's furthest marches, east and west, seeking the blade of legend? Will you venture to the highest peaks and lowest caverns, hunting the ultimate mark? Will your clan take part in a fierce war, protecting the land they know and love from the forces of evil? Ivalice is a world of infinite possibility and intrigue. Your hero can be anything and anyone, but the true question is, can your hero be legendary? Playing the Game If you are familiar with Dungeons & Dragons™ or any similar variant there-of, then getting into Ivalice Alliance Tabletop (IAT) should be a fairly straightforward and easy affair, as it borrows heavily from the rules and play style provided there. Likewise, if you are familiar with Final Fantasy™, then getting into IAT should also be an easy and straightforward affair. If you are familiar with both series, then this game is practically a dream-come-true. In order to play IAT, at least at the stage it is in now, it is a good idea to first be at least somewhat familiar with the D20 system of play, as in, you know what a D20 is and how it's used in a game like Dungeons & Dragons™. IAT is a currently free to play game that is best used on Maptool, a free to download RPG map design kit complete with miniatures, dice, and chat room for players to get together and have fun. And of course, this book, which contains the rules for play. Ivalice Alliance Tabletop is a tabletop fantasy game in which the players take on the roles of heroes (or anti-heroes) who form a group (or party, or clan) to set out on dangerous quests and adventures. Helping them tell this story is the Game Master (GM), who decides what threats the player characters (PCs) face and what sorts of rewards they earn for succeeding at their quest. Think of it as a cooperative storytelling game, where the players play the protagonists and the Game Master acts as the narrator, controlling the rest of the world. The PCs are the main characters in their own unfurling story of legendary exploits that only Final Fantasy can provide. While playing IAT, the GM describes the events that occur in the game world around the PCs, who take turns describing what their characters do in response to those events. Unlike storytelling, however, the actions of the players and the characters controlled by the Game Master (frequently called non-player characters, or NPCs) are not always certain. Most actions require dice rolls to determine success, with some tasks being more difficult than others, this is, for the most part, used to avoid immature squabbles such as the age old “I hit you!” “No, you don’t!” debates. Each character is better at some things than he or she is at other things, granting him or her bonuses based on his or her skills and abilities. Whenever a roll is required, the roll is noted as “d#,” with the “#” representing the number of sides on the die. If you need to roll multiple dice of the same type, there will be a number before the “d.” For example, if you are required to roll 4d6, you should roll four six-sided dice and add the results together. Sometimes there will be a + or – after the notation, meaning that you add that number to, or subtract it from, the total results of the dice (not to each individual die rolled). For example, take that 4d6 from earlier and change it to 4d6+4. Roll the 4d6 as usual, but once you add the results together, you add 4 to those results. Say you rolled a total of 18 off of the 4d6 alone. 18+4 is 22, so the total roll is 22. Most die rolls in the game use a d20 with a number of modifiers based on the character’s skills, 1 his or her abilities, and the situation. Generally speaking, rolling high is better than rolling low. Percentile rolls are a special case, indicated as rolling d%. You can generate a random number in this range by rolling two differently colored ten-sided dice (2d10). Pick one color to represent the tens digit, then roll both dice. If the die chosen to be the tens digit rolls a “4” and the other d10 rolls a “2,” then you’ve generated a 42. A ten on the tens digit die indicates a result from 1 to 9, or 100 if both dice result in a ten. Some d10s are printed with “10,” “20,” “30,” and so on in order to make reading d% rolls easier. Unless otherwise noted, whenever you must round a number, always round down. As the characters adventure and progress in their own story, they gain Gil (the currency of Ivalice), Magickal Items, and Experience Points. Gil is commonly used to buy better equipment, alongside the necessities of living such as food and shelter. Magickal Items provide abilities and enhancements to the character that no mundane item can accomplish (swords are nice, flaming swords are better, however). Experience Points determine the character's level and tier, and are awarded for defeating enemies in combat, overcoming challenges, and progressing the story through role-playing. When your character gains enough experience points, his or her level is increased by one, thus making your character a little better at everything he or she does, allowing him or her to take on tougher challenges. A basic tier, first level character might be challenged by fending off a Baknamy (goblin) invasion. But only a legendary tier, 20th level character can hope to challenge the wrath of the Occuria (the Undying, ancient rulers of Ivalice). It is the GM's sole responsibility to present these challenges to the PCs. A delicate task of making their challenges actually challenging, but not so hard as to be hopeless and completely wipe the party out. All said; it is most important to have fun. IAT is a storytelling game in a highly fantastick world full of airships, sprawling cities, magickal crystals, and legendary beasts. It's an exciting and rewarding experience for all involved, GM and PC. The fantasy awaits! Chapter Summary The sections below represent the chapters of the IAT rulebook as they appear in order. The following synopses are presented to give you a broad overview of the rules encompassed within this book. Getting Started: This chapter covers the basics of the IAT RPG, including information on how to reference the rest of the book, rules for generating player characters (PCs), and a definition of some basic terms found in IAT. Statistics: Statistics (or Stats) are the basic attributes that define a character's raw potential and abilities. Such as muscular power, agility, intellect, and strength of personality. This chapter gives rules on what each statistic is, and how to generate them for a character. Races: The world of Ivalice is a diverse and cultural land, featuring several unique races of people that differentiate from what we as humanity call the norm. Note that this is not race in terms of skin color, but race in terms of entire species. The playable races of Ivalice are the Bangaa, Gria, Humes, Moogles, Nu Mou, Seeq, and Viera. This chapter provides the rules and cultural views of each race and how being a member of that race affects PCs. When playing IAT, it is best to choose a race from this chapter. Jobs: While yes, Ivalice is a world where there are such things as traders, blacksmiths, potters, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers and so on, this chapter deals with none of those professions. In IAT, a character's job mainly determines what he or she does in combat, and affects his or her life outside of combat as well. Your Job determines your max HP and MP, Accuracy, Resiliency, Evasion, Skill Points, Weapon and Armor Proficiencies, Techniques, and Features. This chapter also contains the rules for advancing a character's level, the benefits that brings, and gaining powers from your job. When creating a character, you start at level one in a single job of your choosing from this book. Advanced Jobs & Multi-classing: Final Fantasy™ is known for having a diverse set of specializations for each character in the series. While each character starts off with a basic job, there exist advanced jobs that allow a character to become a master in a selective area. Do you like spears and taking on powerful dragons and drakes? Then the Dragoon Advanced Job might interest you. Are you interested in weaving together highly powerful spells that can clear out the cannon fodder from the battlefield? Then take a look at the Illusionist. A character must meet specific prerequisites before 2 deciding to take levels in an advanced job. These prerequisites vary depending upon the advanced job in question, some require that you have a certain Augment or a certain amount of Skill Ranks, while others require you to complete a quest or obtain a powerful magick item.